V-22 Osprey melts ship landing pads

And it looks like the F-35 JSF will probably be even worse. This premature buckling of the landing pads by the hot exhaust fumes, mean that the pads (which you can’t just go and replace without capsizing the ship) will run out before the ship does.

The USMC has issued DARPA a request to invent landing pads that are refrigerated and non-skid in order to mitigate the effect of the planes landing on them.

V-22 Osprey, stealth jumpjet ‘need refrigerated landing pads’ • The Register.

Channel 4 to crash passenger jet

A passenger jet is to be deliberately crash-landed as part of a scientific experiment on Channel 4 that the broadcaster hopes will be one of its biggest hits of next year.

Two pilots will parachute from the 300-seat airliner after setting it on autopilot to crash at high speed into the desert. The plane will be loaded with cameras and sensors recording the impact of the crash, which Channel 4 said would provide invaluable information about how planes react in potentially fatal accidents.

[…]

In a separate programme, Channel 4 will recreate a typical row of 1940s terraced houses before blowing them up with bombs identical to those used by the German airforce during the war, including a V2 rocket.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/12/plane-crash-tv-channel-4

Belle de Jour is a science nerd

After many years, book deals and a ITV series, Belle de Jour reveals her identity,

Her name is Dr Brooke Magnanti. Her specialist areas are developmental neurotoxicology and cancer epidemiology. She has a PhD in informatics, epidemiology and forensic science and is now working at the Bristol Initiative for Research of Child Health. She is part of a team researching the effects of exposure to the pesticide chlorpyrifos on foetuses and infants.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6917495.ece

Gazprom CEO’s palace removed from Google Maps

The head of Gazprom is building a most luxurious palace in the style of the XVIII century worth $ 50 million
Design documentation for anticipated future residence of the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, who looks like a huge palace in the style of the XVIII century.
Impressive, very similar to the mansion in Peterhof, suddenly brought up on the shore of the Istra reservoir palace initially caused a lot of noise in the blogs.
But officially the head of Gazprom, Alexei Miller, who recorded in the real owners of the palace, that he has the attitude toward him, not admitted.
“Our company has no relation to the” Istra Manor “- the spokesman said Gazprom” Sergei Kupriyanov. But at the same time, membership
mansion Miller refused to comment, that is neither confirmed nor denied.

English fail via Google Translate, but you get the idea.  Check out the Google Maps images at the bottom of the fishki link.

http://fishki.net/comment.php?id=60416

Translated via Google Translate

Matrox Single-Slot Octal Graphics Card

8 graphics outputs on one card? That’s insane!

Matrox Graphics, the leading manufacturer of specialized graphics solutions, today announced the launch of the Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 Octal graphics card, capable of supporting eight DisplayPort or DVI Single-Link outputs from a single workstation. The Matrox M9188 PCIe x16 offers 2GB of memory, resolutions up to 2560×1600 per output, and advanced desktop management features—such as independent or stretched desktop modes

via Matrox Announces World’s First Single-Slot Octal Graphics Card – HotHardware.

Audeo: brain waves to voice signal

The Audeo captures electronic signals between the brain and vocal cords and synthesizes clear, spoken words

This has obvious implications for people who can’t speak, but also military, civil and commercial applications: be able to converse over long distances silently without using your mouth.

It still has teething problems, such as it takes a few days to learn to use and it’s about 5 times slower than normal speech, but still…

via Invention Awards: A Real-Life Babel Fish For the Speaking Impaired | Popular Science.

Gold, a 6000-year old bubble

Some background on the cost/value of gold and fiat currencies.

In a world with multiple fiat moneys, the zero value of money equilibrium lurks for each of the fiat currencies, including gold.  Admittedly, as regards gold, so far so good.  Gold has positive value.  It has had positive value for nigh-on 6000 years.  That must make it the longest-lasting bubble in human history.

http://blogs.ft.com/maverecon/2009/11/gold-a-six-thousand-year-old-bubble/

Closure Tools – Google Code

Web applications have evolved from simple HTML pages into rich, interactive applications that provide a great user experience. Today’s web apps pose a challenge for developers, however: how do you create and maintain efficient JavaScript code that downloads quickly and works across different browsers?

The Closure tools help developers to build rich web applications with JavaScript that is both powerful and efficient. The Closure tools include:

A JavaScript optimizer

The Closure Compiler compiles JavaScript into compact, high-performance code. The compiler removes dead code and rewrites and minimizes what’s left so that it downloads and runs quickly. It also also checks syntax, variable references, and types, and warns about common JavaScript pitfalls. These checks and optimizations help you write apps that are less buggy and easier to maintain. You can use the compiler with Closure Inspector, a Firebug extension that makes debugging the obfuscated code almost as easy as debugging the human-readable source.

A comprehensive JavaScript library

The Closure Library is a broad, well-tested, modular, and cross-browser JavaScript library. You can pull just what you need from a large set of reusable UI widgets and controls, and from lower-level utilities for DOM manipulation, server communication, animation, data structures, unit testing, rich-text editing, and more.

The Closure Library is server-agnostic, and is intended for use with the Closure Compiler.

An easy templating system for both Java & JavaScript

Closure Templates simplify the task of dynamically generating HTML. They have a simple syntax that is natural for programmers. In contrast to traditional templating systems, in which you use one big template per page, you can think of Closure Templates as small components that you compose to form your user interface.

Closure Templates are implemented for both JavaScript and Java, so that you can use the same templates on both the server and client side. For the client side, Closure Templates are precompiled into efficient JavaScript.

via Closure Tools – Google Code.

DTN protocol

DTN (Delayed-Tolerant Networking) was invented to allow packets with huge lags to be sent and received – this is especially important when sending packets to, say, Mars, but is also very useful in mobile environments (where packet delays when changing base stations sometimes cause a drop from the network). Android incorporates it and satellite based Cisco routers will be testing it for use here on earth.

Buitenaards net-protocol komt naar Aarde | Webwereld.